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Hi everyone!
Can any of you recommend someone I might call to unclog a dryer vent? Our appliance repair person just left and said that we might try a chimney sweep or HVAC person. I don't know who to call. It is obviously clogged somewhere between the wall and the outside vent (dryer is upstairs).
Anyone have any experience with this problem?
If the vent was a short connection, I'm surprised that the repair person couldn't find the clog. But there are many people who do this on the side. Since it's upstairs, it would be good to hire someone comfortable with a ladder - one example should be Dryer Vent Cleaning Greenville SC.
This happened to me when bird built a nest in the outdoor vent. It was a metal vent with flap, and the bird apparently could sneak in by lifting the flap. I added a bird guard to the outside to prevent that from happening again.
There are local services that do this or you can buy a kit at Lowes or Home Depot to clean it out. We do ours yearly and it's amazing what comes out. We had a good-sizes clump of lint, but no blockage where it vents to the roof the first time we did it, now it's just a lot of fluff each time.
It looks like DH and I are going to go to Lowe's and get a vent lint removal kit and try it.
If that doesn't work, we might try the leaf blower.
As a last resort, we will call someone. Maybe it won't come to that. I just paid the appliance guy $65 for a service call thinking that there was something wrong with my dryer.
It looks like DH and I are going to go to Lowe's and get a vent lint removal kit and try it.
If that doesn't work, we might try the leaf blower.
As a last resort, we will call someone. Maybe it won't come to that. I just paid the appliance guy $65 for a service call thinking that there was something wrong with my dryer.
Save your money and do the leaf blower trick first. That should do the trick. Disconnect the power source to the dryer first!!! Unplug, turn off,whatever. Just wrap a towel or rag around the end, while you put the nozzle end of the blower in your dryer vent. Best to remove the flexible hose from the dryer to the vent and get directly to the vent pipe going outside. Start slowly, helps if you have someone by the exit end of the dryer vent to see what's happening. Then increase the blower discharge. Should work. recommend doing this every six months or so. You might want to check the back of the dryer( remove the back panel ) to check for lint buildup and vacuum the area well. Fire Danger if not removed! Hope this helps in some way.
Thank you everyone!
I am pleased to report that we got the "Linteater" kit from Lowe's and it worked very well. A lot cheaper than calling someone else out to do it, and now we have the kit for future use.
Our leaf blower isn't working, or we might have gone that route.
This board is indispensable and I thank everyone so much.
Now, I need to get the laundry caught up in time for the possible ice storm, in case we lose power...
That's the business my hubby started here in NYS-but it never took off. He charged $49 to clean a vent. Oh well, at least I've got all the professional stuff to clean our own when we move to SC. We've seen too many homes go up in flames due to the vents not being cleaned out. Don't forget to clean out the area too for the lint trap-that can get packed up with junk too and start a fire.
Interesting, our dryer lint vent is only about a foot long and perfectly straight from our dryer to outside the house - I never even thought about the fact that some people might have a really long one that curves.
Interesting, our dryer lint vent is only about a foot long and perfectly straight from our dryer to outside the house - I never even thought about the fact that some people might have a really long one that curves.
Ours have mostly been over the years.
In our last apartment the dryer was on the right side of the laundry area and the outer wall was on the left side. The vent went into the right wall, and came out about 8 ft up on a completely different wall outside.
There must have been at least three elbows in that pipe (possibly 4), and it was at least 10 foot long. Had to have the maintenance people out twice in three years for clogs.
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Leaf Blower!!
